The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, December 10, 1884, Image 1

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,':^j ABBEVILLE PRESS AND BANNER.! BY HUGH WILSON. ABBEVILLE. S. C.. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBEH 10, 1884. NO. 24. VOLUME XXIX. REMEMBERED. Between my soul and one long with the dead, There comes an olJ lemetnbered poem sweet, In some dear book that once my mother read, "While I was at her feet. I dreamed not then how this would follow me, When like her own should grow my care" worn brow; But yet for you. Oh, drop of Poesy! I hold thanksgiving now. ?George H. Coomer. A TARDY THANKSGIVING. "I s'pose you air go'in' down to Han- | nan s to spend l Jiansgivin , .Mis Aluzzy: The old lady who a?>ked the question j was seated in Mrs. Muzzy's best hair- j cloth rocking-chair, which had been j brought for the occasion out of the par- j lor. She had a mild, tiny-featured old face, wore a false front of auburn hair, and a black lace cap decorated with purple ribbons, and was knitting?putting new heels into some blue yarn stockings. The answer she got to her question, delivered in her prim, purring company tone, made her jump nervously: "Xo; 1 ain't go'n' a step?not if I know what I'm about." The words shot out of Mrs. Muzzy's mouth as if each one had had a charge of powder in the rear, and the speaker : went 011 jerking the stout thread vicious- j ly through the seam she was sewing. " She was a squarely built woman, compactly fleshy. There was a bright red , color on each of her firm round cheeks; J there was a vajjue line in her whole face: j her mouth opened and shut unhesitating- j ly and fairly; and she looked out of her small brown eyes directly, with no circumlocution. "Mebbe you air goin' up to your! brother Andrew's, then?" ventured the . old lady feebly. "Xo, Mis' Field, I ain't a-goin' to ( t Andrew's, nuther. I ain't a-goin' nowheres." "But," purred the old lady, "ain't you afeard you'll be awful lonesome? Lor", I 1 don't know what I should do ef it warn't j for i>errah au' her childern on a Thanks- | givin'-day. To be sure, you ain't got' any childern an' grandchildern to go to, I but thar's your sister Hannah an' hers, an' Andrew an' his, an' it kinder seems : as if brothers an' sisters come next." "Thar ain't no use talkin'," said Mrs. Muzzy, in a loud, clear-cut voice. "I ain't a-goin' to Hannah's to Thanksgivin', nn' f ain't n-rrnin' tr> A nrlrew's to Thanks giving an' I ain't a goin' to hev any I Thanksgivin' to hum. I ain't got nothin' to give thanks fur, as I see on. I s'pose ' ef I could go to ineetin' Thanksgivin' mornin', an' hear the sermon, an' then set down to turkey and plum-puddin', ' an' be a-thankin' the Lord in my heart for lettin' my husband fall off the scaf- j fold in the barn an git killed last sum- j mer, an' for lettin' my daughter Char lotte die of a quick consumption last spring, an' my son John two year ago this fall, I might keep Thanksgivin' as well as other-folks. But I can't, an' I; ain't a-goin' to purtend I do. Thar's one thing about it?I ain't a hypocrite, an' ; never was." "What air you a-goin' to do, Mis'j Muzzy ?" ' Dol'' 3Irs. Muzzy sniffed. "Do! I'm , a-goin' to stay to hum, an'?do mv pig- ! The old lady's small-featured countenance from its very mechanism, was in- ! capable of expressing any strong emotion, but it took on now a "look of gentle horror. She dropped herknitting-work, j and her dim blue eyes seemed to take up the whole of her spectacles. "Lor' sakes, Mis' Muzzy? Pig-work onThanksgivin'-day! I never heerd anything like it!" "1 don't keer. The pig-work has got to be done, an' I might jest as well do it Thanksgivin'-day as any other. I feel enough sight more like it than eatin' turkey an' plum-puddin', with ail I've been through." "Ain't you a-goin' to meetin'?" "Xo." "Lor' sakes?" The old lady fell to knitting again in a mild daze. Mrs. Muzzy would have been too much for her in her best da\s;1 now she almost reduced her to lunacy. | Still, this old lady, who was a neighbor, I living about a quarter of a mile distant, felt for her the attraction which weak natures oicen ieei ior ine strong. cue was very fond of dropping in of an afternoon with her knitting-work. There was not so much difference in their ages as ' one might think at first, either, although Sirs. Muzzy was so much younger-looking. Her daughter, who had died the spring before, had been a school-mate of Mrs. Field's Sarah. The old lady often accepted the invi- i tation to stay and take a cup of tea, but to-day she shortened her call a little, j The "pig-work"' on Thanksgiving day rankled in her mind, and she wanted to ( go home and tell her daughter Sarah. J After she had gone, Mrs. Muzzy went from the warm sitting-room into her 3 uuiu, CAuuisuei v neat miuuuu, anu kindled a tire in the cooking stove, and made herself a cup of tea. Though she 1 was livins alone, every meal was prepared and eaten with religious exacti-1 tilde. She spread a white cloth over the table, put on some slices of bread, I a little dish of quince sauce, and some j custard pie. Then she sat down with a sort of "defiant appetite. She had finished her bread and sauce, aDd begun on her pie, when the kitchen door, which opened directly out-doors, | opened, and a girl of twenty or so walked in. i "How d'ye do, Lizzie?"' said Mrs. j Muzzy. "Pretty well, Aunt Jane," replied the girl, listlessly, and she sank down in the nearest chair. She was a tall, slender girl, with duncolored hair. She had delicate featujees,^ and would have been pretty if it haefnot j been for a pitiful droop at the corners of | her mouth, the dullness of her eyes, and the dark >ings under them. 11 llev some custard pie?" "No, thank you: I'm not hungry." "I saw young Allen go by here 'bout three o'clock, ridin' with that Ilainmond girl,'' remarked Mrs. Muzzy, eyeing her niece sharply. She only looked at her aunt, in the same way she hud done before, with an i expression of misery too helpless and set- \ tied to be aufjmeuted. " Yes, " she replied: " I saw them." "She's a pretty-lookin' gal. Her cheeks air as red as roses, an' she had on a handsome bunnit." "Yes.' " It's quite a long time since he's been to see you." " Yes." " Well, I wouldn't mind, anyhow, ef; I was you," eaid Mrs. Muzzy," looking at the girl's we.irv face, and changing | her tone a little. "Let him go, ef he wants to. Jest show him you don't | kesr." The girl woke up a little at that. "Show him I don't care!" she cried, passionately. " He knows I care. It would be a disgrace to me if I didn't care, after I've been going with him for ! three years, and he leaving me for a new ! face. It's no use pretending I don't, j I don't see why folks tell me to. My i heart ought to be broken and it is." "I'd hev more sperrit." "Would you? Well, I'm made different, I suppose," said the girl; and her face took on its listless expression again. Her aunt finished her second cup of Ilea, ana Deganio ciear uvvtiy tuc muic. 41 Are you coming over to our house Thanksgiving, or Uncle Andrew's?" asked Lizzie, after a little, with some faint appearance of interest. " I ain't a-goin' nowheres; I'm -a-goin' to stav to hum, an' do my pig-work.'' "Fig-work?" "Yes; I'm a-goin'to hev' 'em killed Tuesday." Her surprise made Lizzie for a minute look like another girl. " But, Aunt Jane, why? I never heard of such a thiug! Pig-work on Thanksgiving Day!" Mrs. Muzzy braced herself up defiantly. "Look a-here, Lizzie Munroe," quoth she; "you think you're down as fur as anybody kin be, because you've lost your beau. Well, I've lost my husband, that I'd lived with forty year, an' that was, J more than any beau, an' I've lost my | daughter, both of 'em this year, an' two year ago this fall my son John, an11 don't see as I've got anything to be thunkful for. I ain't agoin to keep Thanks| givin'-day, an' cat turkey an' plum-puddiu'. I feel enough sight more like doin' pig-work, an' I'm a-goin' to." The girl's dull eyes seemed to catch a gleam from her aunt's. For a minute she looked strangely like her. Mrs. Muzzy's passionate, detiant nature fired her niece's mere unresisting, hopeless one. "Well, Aunt Jane," she said, in a tone like an echo of her aunt's, "I don't wonder you feel so. And?I don'tcare about #ating turkey and plum pudding either? I'll come over and help you." Mrs. Muzzy looked startled for a minute. Perhaps her own spirit reilected in : another looked differently to her. "Well, Lizzie, jest as you like," she said then. '-I'll be glad of your help; it's consiuer'ble to do pig-work all alone, an' I've never been use to it"?with a sigh. "Well, I'll come, Aunt Jane." There was a long silence; then the girl took her sad face out. the door, and her aunt, having set away the last of her tea things, went back into her warm sitting room; the kitchen nre was going out, nuu n was yiu?jug cold. Thanksgiving morning, a week later, ! was gray and cloudy, and the air felt like snow. Mrs. Muzzy's kitchen was full of ! streaming, glowing heat. She had two i immense iron kettles on her stove, and was busily cutting pork into small square j bits to try out. Lizzie was there helping, too. She had ' come over early. Her sad young face j looked sadder this morning. The cold I gray light brought out all the pitiful | drooping lines mon plainly. She had j probably been weeping instead of sleep- | ing the niyht before. Her .dun colored hair was put back plainly and neatly; j grief did not with her manifest itself in i untidiness, though she never crimped her I hair now. Lizzie looked like another girl j with her hair crimped. Her dark print | fitted over her slender shoulders trimly, I and she wore a little white rutile in the neck. She was cutting pork, too; her j wrists, though small, were muscular, and ' she worked steadily and effectively, I though with a pathetic indifference. Mrs. j Muzzy's firmly set face betrayed little of it, but she really eyed her niece from time to time with furtive uneasiness. ~ T 1 AAnonmnonacc OfOr : i?Uf null 4111 iiiui'i LUUOV.4VUJUWO, */?%,* , present to herself, that her state of mind : was highly culpable, but she undertook the responsibility for herself with sullen , defiance. It was another thing, however, | to be responsible for a similar state in j another. Lizzie, standing there, with her ; dull, hopeless face, indcfatigably cutting pork, seemed to her like the visible fruit of her own rebellious nature. "Hev you seen Jenny Bostwick late- j Iy?" asked she, with a desperate deter- I mination to alter her niece's expression, j "Xo,*' replied Lizzie, slowly. ".Toe j hasn't left her. Theyr'e always together, i I can't bear to go there." "I know," said Mrs. Muzzy, with quick, sympathetic recognition of the , feeling. "I felt that way after John 1 died. I couldn't bear to go into Mis' j Mann's because there was her Edward-? | she'd had him spared, an' my boy'd , been taken." About ten o'clock the front door bell j rang. "Yougoto the door, Lizzie,"said Mrs. Muzzy; "you look better"n I. Lizzy took off her apron, and went . obediently. Time was when the tinkle i of a. door-bell could make her tremble 1 all over, but she was calm enough now. j Tf- wns siv months since George Allen i had been to sec her, and she had given I up all hope of his ever coming again. .Airs. Muzzy heard the doors open and : shut, then a murmer of voices in the sit- j ting room. Oue of the voiccs was un j questionably a man's, low-pitched and j earnest. Lizzie seemed to brenk into | sobs now and then, and once she lnughed. Mrs. Muzzy started when she heard that: she had almost forgotten how Lizzie's laugh sounded. "Who on earth has Lizzie got in there?" she muttered to herself; but she was a i woman who could keep her curiosity in check. She went steadily on with her work till the sitting-room door opened and Lizzie came out. But was it,Lizzie??the girl with those pink cheeks and radiant eves, and that i dimpling mouth? Mrs. Muzzy laid her j knife down and stared at her. "It's George! George! said Lizzie, in ; a happy, trembling whisper that seemed j almost ready to break out into a scream ! of joy. "He's come to?to take me up j to his house to dinner. I'm going home to change my dress and get ready." She j was trembling so she could hardly move, j but she began pinning on her shawl in j joyful hflste. "Lizzie Munroe," said heraunt, sternly, , "you don't mean to say you're goin' on j with that feller, after all that's hap- i pened?" "Yes, I am; he's come for me." Great tears of pure delight rolled down her cheeks. She had her hood on now, and - -i -1-. turned impatiently towaru iue suuug- | room door. "Come for you! I s'pose ef he'd got ; married to that Hammond girl an' come for you, you'd gone jest the same!" cried her aunt, with course sarcasm. "Yes, I would!" cried Lizzie, reck- i lessly, her hand on the door-knob. "I don't believe but what that Ham- j mond girl's given him the mitten, else he 1 wouldn't plav second fiddle for anv j feller." "I would for him!" cried Lizzie, as shameless in her happiness as she had been in her misery. She opened the door a crack and peeped in ; then she turned to her aunt, her eyes like stars, her cheeks fairly ablaze. " Good-by, Aunt Jane," she said. " I'm sorry to leave you alone with the pig-work. You'd better change your mind an' go over to mother's to dinner." Mrs. Muzzy vouchsafed no reply, and Lizzie went into the sitting-room and jshut the door. Pretty soon her aunt watched her and her truant sweetheart walking down the street. Lizzie was actually hanging on to his arm in broad dayiight. "I don't see where she took such a disposition,'' muttered .Mrs. Muzzy. 4'Not from my side. I'd never have made such a fool of inyse'f over a feller." Then she went on with her pig-work, righteous indignation and scorn against Lizzie mingling in her bosom with rebellion against the will of the Lord. It had always been her boast that she wasn't one of the kind of women who are forever dropping thiugs, and getting burned and scalded, and cutting their lingers. She thought there was no kind of need of it, if anybody had her wits about her, and didn't fly about like a hen with her head cut off. She was to prove, however, to-day that her boasting, for one occasion at least, was vain. She had lifted the first kettle of boiling lard off the stove in safety, and de posited it in the sink. The second?now she did it she never knew, whether the sudden weakening of a muscle or the slipping of a finger occasioned it?she dropped bodily as she was lifting it from the fire. None of the hot fat went on the stove, or there would have been a worse complication of disasters. It landed on the tioor and .Mrs. Muzzy's right foot. She lost none of her resolute coolness with the sudden shock and agony. The kettle was scorching the lloor: you could smeli the burning paint. She lifted it on the stove hearth, and cast a distrustful and indignant glance at the molten grease spreading over the floor. Then she had luckily a pair of scissors within reach. She sat down and cut olT, with convulsive shivers of pain, but grim determination, her shoe and stocking. The foot was shockingly burned. She spf- hr?r lins hard when she saw it. "A half winter's job,"' said she. "Well." She dragged herself in her chair with one foot, hitchiug herself along, in the buttery, to the flour barrel. She powdered the wounded foot thickly with flour, and hitched back. "There," said she, "that's all I can do. There ought to be oil, and bandages and things; but I've ^ot to set still. I wish somebody would come." Then she sat there, in silent endurance, in the midst of the grease, which had cooled, and formed a white coating over the kitchen floor. Her foot ws-a mass of torture. She did not have io : ;to wait for help, however; she had not been sitting there half an hour when she heard quick steps on the frozen ground outside. "Open the door, Jane,'' called the voice of her sister Hannah, Lizzie's mother. "I've got my hands full." "I can't," responded Mrs. Muzzy; "you'll hev to do ft yourself." The door opened after a second. The caller, %vho had a large plate in each hand, stopped short in utter dismay as she took in the aspect of things?her sister, with her floury foot and pale face, and the lard on the floor. "Why, what hev you done, Jane?" she cried. Mrs. Muzzy looked up, and actually smiled, the first time her sister had seen her for many a day. "What hev you got thar, Ilunnah?'' asked she. "Why, I brought you over some Thanksgivin' dinner: but I guess you won't feci like eatin' any now.'' "Yes, I do. Bring it here." "But you want somethin' done more 1 for your foot. Did you tip the hot lard right on to it? Don't it ache? Hadn't j you better wait nn' eat your dinner after | the foot's been seen to?" "No, Hannah; I want it now. I want to cat some turkey an' p!um-puddin' afore I'm an hour older, an' keep ' ' T ?:J T K,,t | i JlRQKSglVlU jL SUlU i. wuuiuu ij uKkv the Lord got ahead of mo, an' I'm clad He has. Bring it here an' I'll eat my dinner, an' then, mebbe, 1 kin hev somethin' more done for ray foot." Her sister gave in then, and Mrs. Muzzy, her forehead wrinkled with pain, sat there and ate her Thanksgiving dinner to the very last mouthful. "Lizzie's feelin' happier," she remarked once. "Yes; George came to take her to his folks' to dinner." "Well, I'm glad of it, ef she's goin' to feel any better." "You would be, ef you was her mother," said her sister, simply.? Bazar. Boys In the Long Winter Evenings. What shall our little boys d>> in the long winter evenings? Of ^?urse our little boys of nine and ten go promptly to bed when the short hand of the clock points to nine,but between this hour and tea time there is a broad unoccupied space which must be filled. Hoys used to be taught to use the needle, but it is very difficult now to induce them to take one in hand. It may be accomplished once in a while by telling how the soldiers used to mend their stockings, and how the young ladies at home used * ? * U o n rl tlironrl IU SL'UU lUUiil Xigtuiwvv/ao ??V? ^ vv? (it woulil be interesting to know just how many of those pretty articles were ever actually of any practical use). Possibly you can impress upon the boys the truth that it really is a good thing to be able to use a needle, and if you can do this, set them to making little bags to keep marbles in, or lot them help to make fancy ba^s to hang on the Christmas tree. Another occupation is the endless one ot making scrap-books?books of pictures as well as of stories and anecdotes. Then there are many games to be played with letters, and itmay be a pleasure to the boys to be provided with white cardboard and a box of paints, and then let them cut out cards and make the letters upon them, and paint them in fanciful ways. It certainly would be a good plan to let a boy give you a specimen of his handwriting every other evening, and allow you to note his gradual but sure improvement; also his drawing. Almost any boy would be proud and glad to be encouraged to do this. If possible, do occasionally play games with your boys. The effect upon a boy's character of having been taught at home to understand and appreciate, and at last to exhibit the true spirit which should enter into all panics, would be marked. To teach him to bear defeat gracefully, and victory with 'only a legitimate pleasure, would certainly be worth while. A strong faith in the idea that well trained and thoughtfully brought up children will in the end be found to be better men, will be an unfailing source of strength to a mother, lier children may go vroug, it is true, but who can believe that they will go so far wrong as they would have done without her labor and her anxious thought. Above all things do allow a boy a certain degree of freedom in his own home. A little boy whose parents went to housekeeping alter boarding for a year or two, said to his mother in astonishment, "Why, mamma, am I to be allowed to go down stairs and about the house as I please?"'* A prisoner just out of jail could hardly have been more at a loss what to do with so much space for a few days. The mother of the child was surprised to see the effect upon the chiid's ni'inncrs. and, as it sectne 1 to her, upon his morals as well. She had thought him a troublesome and quite naunh: v bov a eood deal of the time, but she found that what lie had needed was simply room enough to ca.*ry out his boyish fancies. There is a time in every boy's life when it is not possible to develop him properly without the aid of a kitchen: he needs the help of a stove to enable him to glue and solder, as well as to popcorn and make molasses candy. Once in a while an evening in the kitchen would be a wholesome treat, and he may. without kuowiuc it, be taught respect for the honest labor of others by being obliged to leave it in as gcod condition as he found it. Of course it is true that to bring up a child in the way he should go we need the wisdom of Solomon, the patience of-Job, ami the strength of Samson, but lacking all these, if we can bring ourselves into a proper frame of mind and regard our work, as indeed it is, the choice work of the world, the enthusiasm which does not expend itself in words, but which holds up faint hearts, and strengthens weak hands, will help a faithful mother in all her ceaseless toil. ?Aew York Evening J'osi. An Ingenious Expedient. The telegraph wires in London arc not all above ground, as is the case here, but belong to the underground system. The main wires are laid through the big tunnels, in which are the gas and sewer pipes. These tunneis arc big enough for a man to walk through easily. The branch pipes, containing ihe side wires, running olF from the main line for several miles, are much smaller, of course; and the workmen must be very careful not to lose the connections between the larger and smaller wires. Not long ago, howcer, some men who wen; repairing one of these later.d wires failed to attach to it a leading line by which the wire could be diawn back into its place. The blunder seemed to involve great loss, for it looked as though the whole | side pipe would have to be dug up to replace the wire. In this dilemma, u remarkable step was taken. V rat was caught, and around him was tied one end of a very fine steel wire, lie was placed in the pipe; but, after running a few yards he stopped. Then came another curio.is step. A ferret was put in after the rat. As soon as the rat heard the ferret coining behind it, the tine wins began to pay out. It was feared . that the rat would show tight, but it did not; and the complete circuit wa< made j by both rat and ferret. When the rat came out at the other end of the pipe, it ! was caught; and by means of the line | wire, the telegraph wire was drawn through. !So 'he rat saved the telegraph ! company thousands of dollars. I Blunders of the Telegraphers. Many blunders occur in the transmisI sion of telegraph messages. The mistakes, as a rule, occur with the operator who receives the message, and it is gen1 nmiiir nn n hnsv wire over which two or three hundred messages are received j daily. The wires between this city and j New York do the heaviest work. Some j of the errors quoted at the main oflice of the Western I'nion company yesterday read as follows: "William (Jill A; Pie." for "William Gillespie;" "Do not send the money" for "Do not send testimony;" I "Meet me with hearse and carriage," which should have read, ".Meet me with horse and carriage:" "Dr. A. Wing, room j car conductor," instead of "Drawingroom car conductor;" "Pancake, Belts & ] Co.," for "Hancock, Reals & Co;" "Reserve me a room in Astor house" read "Reserve me a room in store-house."? P.'i Hadeljihia 77mcs. There are live hundred pieces in the , set of cliina used at the White iiouue. 1 ANIMALS AND THEIR WAYS. A REMARKABLE EXTINCT SPECIMENIN THE SOUTH. I Comparative Anatomy withlnterest1 utr Inridcnta-.'Uxirvelousi Strength of Nome of tliu Lower Kingdom. Among the most remarkable of all exI tinct animals yet discovered may be named the Zuglodon. This ancient palI eontological creature was once an inhab: itant of the vast lagoons that once ex' isted near the mouth of the Mississippi river. He was found in the great lime! stone beds in the State of" Alabama, where in solid rock he reposed entombed for at least a thousand centuries. His great body passed into gases and ashes, and the mold which was made by his skeleton filled with carbonate of lime and become solid. So the celebrated I)r. I Koch, the great German paleontologist, found this immense reptile or nondescript. : i He was not a snake, not a fish, not an al- j | ligator; but yet he had parts that re- ! ; sembled all these creatures. His fossil i remains (once on exhibition in St. Louis, but finally destroyed in the Chicago fire), j which were facsimiles of his bones, 'measured 105 feet from his nose to the ; end of his tail. There is no living or exj tinct animal that had a head anything ! like him. It was ten feet long, the j "" a rnvnn font TtlOV WPW ftfmPf] With ! J teeth similar to those of the Narwhal : whale. The circumference of his body I at the thickest part could not have been j lesstlian twenty-four feet. He was pro| vided with an excuse for a scapula, or ; shoulder-blade; to this was added a tumerus (upper bone of the arm) and a j small radius and ulna (the two lower ' bones of the arm) and two or three j 1 phalanges similar to the bones of the human hand. This appendage could not have been of much use of propelling the monster. That work was undoubtedly done by his vast eel-like tail, which was j quite sixty feet in length. As a fighter, | | this fellow could certainly have van- | quished all comers. lie could have : chewed the largest alligator with as much ease as a sea bass would swallow ! a moss-bunker. | The Mastoddn or Missorium was a j huge elephant without a trunk, at least i not such a snout as the elephants we | have in this age. He was a grass ester ! j and lived in the vast prairies which I reach from Western New York directly | west to the foothills of the Rocky Moun: tains. We find his bones in a good state of preservation only a little way beneath the surface, showing that he is of recent origin as compared with those rrirrnntii-' frmsilct whipll Jirfi .'ill Stone. I These animals have filled their places in I nature, and when their surroundings | were no longer suitable to their existence they became extinct. So it will j be in the flight of centuries; animals that I live now will pass away. | It would be useless to speculate upon the vast number of lishcs and reptiles of the seas that have become extinct, as the ; oceans present no method by which its j denizens can be petrified or fossilized; : but that there have been more fishes that have become extinct than there have been of animals there can be no question. ! The peculiar construction of some j quadrupeds presents a number of prob] lems which as yet our greatest compara; tive anatomists have not been able to I give any solution. We know of no living thing that will compare with the common flea in strength ! and agility. A flea, one-sixteenth of an | inch in length, can jump a distance of twenty inches. This is 320 times its i length. If we should require a six-foot I man to iump :>2ft limes his length he j i ^ulcl have to land 1,020 feet from | where lie left the ground. Our common gray rabbit is one of the | best jumpers we have. It is very easy to : measure the strides of this nimble little j fellow in a slight fall of snow. When i j he is pushed by a swift dog he jumps on I level ground about nine feet clear. In j proportion to length, a horse, to jump as I far as a rabbit, would have to clear sixtvfour feet at a jump. There is no quadruped that has such powerful muscles in his quarters as the rabbit and none excel him in the muscles of his loin and back. The horse, on the contrary, cannot jump more than twenty-seven feet. | Longfellow jumped this distance in all his great races. No doubt the great Miss Woodford can and does jump 1 twenty-six and twenty-seven feet in her | best races. Goldsmith Maid stepped , with her hind feet seventeen feet when ' she was going at a 2:13 gait. It is said that Flying Dutchman, a I trotter under the saddle of the olden : time, stepped twenty-two feet. If Mr. 1 Unnnpr shnnlrl menstire the stride of Maud S. he would find it not less than twenty feet. j The gaited horse, next to the gallopi ing gait, will be found to be the pacer, j Ilis reach is twenty feet when going his : best. A man, taking his size, outjumps I a horse. It is well known, too, that a man is superior in strength, endurance and agility to the horse. As a traveler man holds the first place in the ranks of all animals that move over the surface of the earth. The ground mole excels all other animals in strength, jjiw and shoulder. His business is to cut roots and dig. lie is ; put together with reference to the very kind of business we find him engaged in. If human beiugs were organized and adapted to their occupations as well as 1 animals art' to theirs we would have moro successful people in the world i than we now have. A battle between male moles srenerallv ends ; with the death of both animals, 1 but such tights arc very trilling compared with a flea tight. These insects strew the ground Avith each others limbs. An examination by the microscope of a flea after a battle shows what these diminutive creatures are capable of doing. No theory with which we are acquainted accounts for the force we find ; in different animals. Hut it is shown : that size is not the measure of the I quality of force. i In referring to animals of peculiar j anatomical construction the "'possum" 1 is one of the most wonderful, lie is of ] tli3 marsupal fjcnus? i. c., with a false stomach or pouch, wherein to suckle the young and also a place of safety for them. The young ones are only weaned ; when there is no longer room enough for ! them in the pouch. They then make ! their way outside, but in case of alarm or an emergency the little ones crawl inside of the noucli. and are at oncc car ried off by the mother.?1Veto York I World. ; The Gold in the United States Mint. i "The gold in bullion in the mint just ' now amounts to $25,000,000 in value," said chief clerk of the mint Hickok. j "It is composed of gold bars six inches in length, three in width and one and a half in thickness, each worth $0,000. It began to accumulate aliout five years ago, when our foreign trade increased in a wonderful manner. A large amount of English and French gold was paid into ; the couutry and was sent to the New , York assay oflice, where it Avas melted down into bars. It is 1,000 line, which is our technicality for pure or twentyfour carat gold. The American gold ; coinage isitOO line, while English is 1)25 | fine, so that we arc glad to get thatcoin1 age to melt down. You must not supi pose that this Inrge amount of gold is | always in the mint. The amouut fluctuj ates. Next week we may hr.ve a great ! deal more, or it ra:iy nearly all bo gone. I It depends on the demand for gold coin." ?Philadelphia. Times. I I The Camel Corps. It seems as if the British army never could start on any journey without its limbs being first tied up, like a Daveni port Brother, in red tape. The Camel ; j corps first started on the Soudan expedi, j tion without the saddles which were necessary to carry a long legged trooper on its lon^-legged shoulders. When the 1 saddles arrived by a later ship they were J too badly constructed to bo used. The ; soldiers got their backs up as well as the camels.?New York Journal. The first Congress under the Constitu' tion met in New York city, March 4, j 1789. December G, 1790, the seat ' | of government was moved to Phila!. delpliia, where it remained until June, J 1800. IA TALK ABOUT THE TEETH. HTJ1JAH MOLABS DISCUSSED PBOM VARIOUS POINTS OP VIEW. ! Omens and Si^nn Relating; to tlic Teeth?Why I'eopleVt Teeth Come Out?.Halting Artificial Teeth. Tlic charms, omens, sigus and panaceas I relating to the' teeth constitute quite a formidable item in folic lore. In-some j parts of tlic country there is a superstition that if you put on your right ! stocking, right shoe and light trouscr leg before the left, you will never have toothache. To drink out of a skull taken from a graveyard; to taKc a tooth from such a skull and wear it around the neck; to apply the tooth to your own living but aching tooth; to put a double ! nut into your pocket; to pare your nails , and wrap up the pairings in paper?all ; arc charms against the toothache. If you ! catch a mole in a trap, cut oil one of his paws and wear it as a charm, you will soon see the effect, provided a right paw be used for a left tooth, and vice versa. When an aching tooth is extracted, mix it. with salt and burn it. There is a certain custom of calling the toothache the " love pain," for which thesuffereris not entitled to any commiseration; whether he (or she) fully assents to this, may perhaps be doubted. Many other items of tooth lore have no connection with ^A/\^K<%AKA T? A ? inolnrinft if flin x ui iiiabaiiv^u^ ii lhv -kvvvu are set wide ajmrt, there will be good luck iind plenty of traveling for the fortunate possessor. When a tooth is drawn, if you refrain fiom thrusting vour tongue into the*cavity, the new tooth to grow in its place will bo a lucky one. A letter written iu 1713, by a lady to lierson, spoke of the eilicacy of wolves' teeth set in gold to assist children in cutting teeth. Why do some people's teeth comc out more readily than others? The reasons for this are probably many. About the middle of the last century Peter Kalm, a Swede, visited the Unite J States and wrote sensibly about what lie saw. lie observed a frequent loss of teeth among settlers from Europe, especially women. After discussing and rejecting many modes of explanation, he attributed it to hot tea and other beverages, and came to a jreneral conclusion that "hot feeders lose their teeth more readily than cold feeders." lie also noticed that "the American Indians have better teeth than the whites." lie accounts for the differ ence in this strange way, that the reds keep the month shut, whereas the whites keep it open. The teeth, he says, require moisture to keep their surfaces in good working order: when the mouth is open the mucous membrane has a tendency to dry up, the teeth lose their needed supply of moisture and thence come discoloration, toothache, decay, looseness and eventual loss of teeth. He scolds the human race generally for being less sensible than the brutes in this respect, and the white race specially in comparison with the red. "\\re keep our mouths open far too much; the Indian warrior sleeps, hunts and smiles with his mouth shut, and respires through the nostrils. Among the virtues attributed by him to closed lips one is excellent?when you are angry keep your mouth shut. During the days of body snatchcrs, when graveyards were subjected to pillage for supplying anatomists with subjects for dissection, the teeth from the dead bodies formed a frequent article ol sale to dentists. Sometimes graves arc opened for the teeth alone, as being small and easily concealed articles. The making of artificial teeth is a trade in which a large amount of ingenuity is displayed, both in the adaption of new substance and in the mode of shapins and finishing. When artificial teeth began to be made, instead of using the natural teeth of dead persons, they were made of bone or, the more costly kind, of ivory from the tusks of the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopatamus, walrus 01 narwhal. If only a single tooth was wanted it was customary to cut a bit oi bone to the proper shape, and tie it to the next tooth by a ligature of wire. It is still found that tusk bone possesses the best combination of properties. It combines, as a learned authority in the dental world tells us, "lightness, strength and solidity with a natural appearance and a certain congeniality to the mouth, possessed by no other material, which render both partial pieces and entire sets at once the most useful substitutes for the lost natural teeth." The mechanical dentist must be a gen| uine workman. When he is about to make bone or ivory teetn ne cuts a iusk into pieces find shapes each piece by an elaborate series of mechanical processes. Sometimes for a customer who has plenty of dollars to spare he will make a set, upper or lower, as the case may be, out of one ])icce. lie saws his block of ivory roughly to the size, and then with infinite patience liles and graves it into shape. He has at hand a model of the patient's gum and works to that model with exactness. The teeth arc not sepj aratc pieces; they are cut into apparent rather than real separation, like the teeth | of a comb. An artistic workman will take care that the teeth shall present j some of that irregularity which our natural grinders always exhibits; a learner I falls into the mistake of making them too good. Manv persons do not like to I wear dead people's teeth?there is someI thing uncomfortable in the idea; there is also lrci|ueutly a germ of decay in such teeth, and these two reasons led to the custom of making artificial ivory teeth. Ivory, however, with all its excellencies, becomes discolored, and hence the chief motive for making teeth of certain mineral or vegetable compositions. There i is, in tact, a sort 01 triangular uuei aiI ways going on among the ivory dentists, j mineral dentists and vegetable dentists, I eacli class lighting stoutly against both , of the others. Whether your dentist really j makes the teeth which he inserts ; in your cranium is a question ! he does not deem it necessary to 1 answer. In truth he very rarely does I anything of the kind. There are certain j dealers who sell sets of teeth, half sets, | twos or threes, singles or doubles, front or back, top or bottom, finished or unfinished, as well as all the apparatus and | tools required for the dentist's art. And some of these dealers themselves are supplied by manufacturers who conduct operations on a considerable scale. The United States is ahead of all other countries in this art. A recent computation makes the number of artificial teeth fabricated here as high as six millions j annually?symbols (according to some | folks' notions) of six million attacks of toothache. In one of the largest and ' most complete factories where mineral j teeth are made, the chief ingredients ] comprise feldspar, silica and clay; those j of subsidiary character are sundry me J tallic oxides, to produce those tints of I discoloration which are necessary to j make the imitation a good one. The | feldspar, silica and clay are ground ;to ! an impalpable powder under water, then j dried and made into a paste. Tlie teetli arc ! cast in brass molds, varied in size and : shape to suit the re<|uireinents of the ' mouth. A special kind of paste, to j form the enamels, is Hist to put into the j mold with a small si.-el spatula; the platinum rivets, by win !i the teeth arc to I 1 ...... <irl in.-in/l in Inn on/1 Uli UIMUIIUU, mi uviju^iwvi ill j/w.-?itivsu then (lie paste forming the body of the tooth is introduced until the mold is filled up. Next ensue powerful pressure and drying. AY lien removing the mold the tooth goes through a process called biscuit ill!,' (analogous to a particular stage in pom-lain manufaeture) in which state it can b.* cut like chalk. It is then sent to the trimmer, who scrapes off all roughness and unnecessary projections, and tills up any degressions which may have been left in the < ,? ration of molding. A wash called enamel is made by selecting various ingredients m ire fusibl I than those of the tooth, grinding them to a fine powder with water, and applying the thick liquid as paint by means of a camel's hair pencil. The tooth then goes to the guinmer. who applies a gum comprising oxide of gold and other ingredients. At length heat is applied. The tooth, when dried, is put into a muzzle, or enameler's oven, where it is placed on a layer of crushed quartz strewed over a slab of fire-resisting clay. After beingexposed for a time to an intense heat, the tooth is taken out and cooled, and there it is. beautiful forever. John Jay, of New York, was the first chief-iustice of the United States. i ? NEWS SUMMARY Eastern and Middle States. The Philadelphia Record publishes an eight column article showing that the State of Pennyslvania is losing $22,720,724 a year through the suspension of coal mining in the anthracite region. It also asserts that the losses entailed upon the State through the railroad pools, railroad restrictions in supplies, and the coke syndicate in the bituminous region amount to $0,247,010 a year. Simon Knowles, of Meredith, N. Y., the oldest Freemnson m the State, and probably in the United States, died a few days since aged ninety-eight years and six months. Mr. Knowles was a native of Connecticut, and soon after a'.taining his majority became a memLer of the masonic fraternity. He served in the war of 1812. Two severe shocks of earthquake were experienced in various portions of New Hampshire. At Concord large buildings wereshaken and people awakened from their slumbers. The complete count in Pennsylvania gives Blaiuo 474,2l>8 votes to 393,510 for Cleveland, 15,3(56 for St. John, and 10,492 for Butler. Belva Lockwood received throe votes in the State. Ex-Governor Hendricks called on Governor Cleveland at the executive mansion in Albany. The executive committee of the Democratic National committee also called. A joint committee representing the various Cleveland and Hendricks clubs of tho New York business men tendered an escort of 500 men to Governor Cleveland at the inauguration in Washington on March 4. Governor Cleveland responded by saying that he was nvprflft tn havinnr n rlicnlnv nf nnv Irinrl at, fchft inauguration, but would give the matter his earnest and careful attention. Some men were celebrating the marriage of an acquaintance in Holsey Valley, N. \., by firing a cannon. At the fifth charge tho cannon went off prematurely. Ellsworth Kirk was killed, George Heps' eye was blown out and Sumner Basebush was also blinded and terribly burned in tho face. Frederick Kirk was so badly hurt that his rocovory was considered doubtful. Henry Elbin was thrown fifteen or twenty feet by the concussion and his eardrums were burst Elijah Bartin, "Fred" Heps and Albert Winters were all badly hurt. At a Democratic jollification in Newcastle. Penn., an explosion of sky-rockets killedthree persons and seriously injured a number of others. Earthquake shocks were felt in various parts of Massachusetts. A fire at Waynesburg, Penn., destroyed several business houses anil the Independent office. Only three veterans of the war of 1612 met in New York to celebrate tho one hundred and first anniversary of the British evacuation of tho city. Hugh J. Jewett has been succeeded as president of the Erie railroad by John King, Jr. A mw board of directors has been chosen, and the wages of employes aro to be generally reduced. Daniel Shea, of New York, a bad-tempered old man of seventy, quarreled with Mrs. Margaret Miller, a neighbor's wife, and killed her with one thrust of a penknife. The old man was arrested. South and Went* J. "W. Akin* and his son Joseph were shot and killed by a sheriff's posse at Sherman, Texas, while engaged in painting the town red. Two of the posse were wounded. Oliver Bateman, twenty years old, was hanged at Savannah, Ga., for the murder of two young daughters of John McLaughlin lncf: Anrrti?t. Tho ATAPiitfnn waq wibimspH by 20,000 people. On tho same day John Bush (colored) was hanged at Lexington, iiy., for the murder of Miss Annie Van Meters. Official returns put Georgia's vote as follows: Cleveland 04,567; Blaine, 47,904; Butler, 125, and St John, 184. The official plurality for Cleveland in North Carolina is 17,837. J. Randolph Tuckek, who was recently re-elected to Congress from the Tenth district of Virginia by the Democrats, has been appointed guardian for the minor children of President Garfield. South Carolina's official voto shows 09,890 for Cleveland, and 21,733 for Blaine; Cleveland's plurality, 48,157. Official figures in Illinois givo Blaine 340,494 votes; Cleveland, 312,314. Blaine's plurality is 2*, 180. For governor, Ojilesby's plurality over Carter Harrison is 13,537. Iowa's official returns give Blaine a plur ality of 19,803. St. John has about 2,0JO votes. In* Michigan the official Republican vote for electors is 192,354; Fusion, 189,408; Blaine's plurality 2,940. Alger, Republican candidate for governor defeats Governor Begole by. a plurality of 3,812. Complete returns in Virginia give Cleveland 141,500 votes and Blaine 134,561; Cleveland's plurality, 7,004. Blaine's vote in California wa3 100,816; Cleveland, 88,307; St. John, 2,640; Butler, 1,975, plurality for Blaine, 12,500. Nine persons W6re crossing the Tennessee river near Coper ton's Ferry, Ala., when the ferryboat capsized. The ferryman, named Thomas Key, his child, two women and two children lost their lives. Mrs. Key witnessed the drowning of her husband and son from the opposite bunk of the river,and was driven stark mad by the occurrence. A fire has destroyed the St Louis Grand Opera-house, the most commodious theatre in the city. Estimated loss $125,000. John C'hapin's liquor saloon in Bladensburg, Ohio, was raided by a body of masked men, the liquid contents thrown into the streets and the fixtures destroyed. Chapin was struck on the head by a stone and killod. The affair created the greatest excitement throughout the couuty. A fire has nearly wiped out the town of Talcott, W. Va. Two planters were killed and their residences destroyed by a cyclone in St. John's parish, La The official vote for President in West Virginia is as follows: Blaine, 63,096; Cleveland, win?. ?? T~V,? (wo. p?fiar. am land's plurality, 4,2*31. ' Hon*. James L. Pugh has been re-elected as United States Senator from Alabama. Winfield S. Fhitz, with his wife, James RafTerty, his partner, and Joseph Raymond, a hired man, were found murdered 011 their ranch in Cohise county, Arizona. rl'wo cowboys committed tho deed in order to prevent tho murdered persons from giving information of the lynching of a Mexican boy, of which outrago tho cowboys had been accused. Washington. A report made to tho secretary of war by the armament board states that more than 1,200 heavy cannons aro needed for harbur defence. Reports received from various parts of the country state that tho outlook in the cotton and iron trade is gloomy, and that reduction in wages and closing of mills and factories aro taking place all over. The Central Democratic committee of tho District of Columbia has received a letter from Senator Barnum saying that a committee had beon appointed from the National Democratic committee to take charge of the ceremonies at tho inauguration of Governor Cleveland. The annual report of Surgeon-General Gunnell has been submitted to the secretary of the navy. The ratio of mortality in tho navy for tho year lSi>.') was 4.55 per thousand of t'orco, n very slight increase over previous years. The estimates for the ensuing fiscal year amount to $225,050. Thero were 111 the Hospital for the Insane, at Washington, sixty-two individuals?oftieers and men of the navy?at the end of tho year. The expenditures from tho naval hospital fund amounted to $105,271, leaving a balance on nana ot The IIouso committee on appropriation3 met at the capital to inap out their work for the session. Chairman llandall and Messrs. lillis, Townshend, Follett, and Ryan were present, and Messrs. Keifer, Holman, and Forney were represented by others. Tho estimates for six of the annual bills, namely, tho postollico, Indian, consular and diplomatic, army, navy and military academy bills, were placed in the hands of sub-committees. Foreign. The king of Siain, in recognition of our government's warm friendship and of Minister Haldeiman's "faithful observance of treaty obligations," had made u gift to tho United States of house and leasehold interest in grounds in perpetuity, for tho American legation at Bangkok. Sixty persons liavo boon poisoned, many of them being in a dangerous condition, in the village of Henrils, Austria, owing to the carelessness of a corn dealer in mixing rat | [loi.son with Hour. j M. Stsksi.itz, the Russian millionaire who I recently died, bequeathed roubles | about to Mine. Mentor, who disputes with Mine. Schumann the honor of being the greatest living female pianist. Two men named Kvun anil Walters sailed from Victoria. British Columbia, in a sloop ivith nineteen Chin -so, whom they intended to smuggle into Washington Territory. Tho sloop capsized and the wholo party wero irowned. Bisnoi- J. W. Wiley, of tho American I Methodist Episcopal church, died at Foo isiimv, v nina, wnuu un ? uuu u<.? mo mumuu In that country and in Japan. Immens : damage has b'.njn done in Madras, India, by acycloii". . . lliOT.s among students in Madrid, Spain, have grown very serious. Hundreds of ar rests have been made and many persons wounded. El Maiidi, tlie False Prophet, has from 15,000 to L'O^iitf) men entrenched around Ivh irtoum. The British troops aro advancing to Gordon's relief. An iron safe in the late duke of Brunswick's villa at Heitzing, which was bequeathed to the Duke of Cumberland, was supposed to be empty. Investgation, however, has revealed the fact that it contains coin and paper money to tho value of g.VKUKH). The looms used in the State of New Jersey for the manufacture of homc-nuide silk arc almost fac-9imiles of those cmployed in China aud India for the same purpose. | THE POSTAL SERVICE. ; \nnnal Receipts and Expenditures of the Postoffke. | Facts and Figures About the Delivery of the Mails. A D. Hazen, third assistant postmastergeneral, in his annual report to the postmas*:r-general, estimates the expenditures for /ho service of his ofllce for the next fiscal rear at $1,388,400, an increase of $140,)00 over tho appropriation for the cur rent fiscal year. Ho 'says the receiptf of the entire postal service for the fiscal year ;iuled June 30, 1884, were $43,338,127; disourseinents $4(5,404,960, making an excess of jxpenditures of $3,000,833. In addition tc tho total expenditures, the sum of $819,55f <vas paid on ijccount of indebtedness incurred 'n previous years. The outstanding liabili ties for tho year are estimated at $877,471) which sum, added to the amount actually expended, and $1,200,179 credited tc tho Pacific railroad companies, would make tho total cost of the service for the fiscal year 648,542,Gil or to,204,484 in excess of the receipts. The decrease in receipts from the previou? fiscal year was $2,170,565, and was caused mainly by the reduction of the letter rate oi postage, which went into effect October 1, 18S3. The appropriations for the service o 1 the year aggregate $40,746,037. The total number of postage stamps, stamped envelopes, and postal cards issued during the year was 2,166,130,300, with o total value of $41,515,877. The decrease ir tho value of issues of ordinary postage stamps amounted to $1,229^735. The tota decrease in the value of all issues, including postal cards, stamped envelopes, postage due siamps, and wrappers, amounted to $1,394, 442. The weight of second-class matter during the year, not including free circulation withir the county of publication was 94,479,007 pounds, the postage on which was $1,889,592. an increase of $184,414 over the previous year. Tho New York city postoffice handled the greatest weight, the amount being 23,529,581 pounds. Tho whole number of pieces of undelivered mail matter received in the dead letter office, including 278,048 pieces on hand, was 4,848.099. Of this number .'514,719 were misdirected. There were destroyed 2,539,477 letters and 17,513 parcels of fruit, cake, etc. Among the letters opened 13,002 contained money, and 19,014 drafts. Of letters sent to foreign countries 210,430 were returned as undeliverable. The total number of letters and parcels registered during the year was 240,545, and the amount of registry fee3 collected wa.< $957,059, an increase of $30,509. The loss oi registered letters during the year amounted lo one out of ever}' 21,795 pieces mailed. This is the smallest average of loss which has ocI curred sinco tho organization of the registry system. LATER NEWS Two starving sailors of the pilot boat Tusley, who liarl been without food for sixty hours, were picked up at sea and brought t J Delaware breakwater. They had been cornlulled to feed on the flesh of a dead comrade and had suffered intensely from cold. The three men had started for shore in a skiff after putting a pilot on an outward bound steamer, and had been driven out to sea. Considerable alarm prevails among the white people residing in Indian Territory touching the action of the Cherokee legislature, which recently passed a bill excluding all white persons from the Territory. I)r. John- Maxwell, a physician of Springfield, Ohio, killed three of his four children by means of chloroform mixed with aconite and then attempted to take bis own life by tho method. The oldest chilS and tho father were resuscitated. Maxwell left a letter to his wife saying that he was tired of poverty | and of life, and wanted to put his children where th?y Would not suiter. Frank Case v. a colored man, was hanged at Little Rock, Ark., for stabbing a companion. Tiie bank of Adams & Leonard at Dallas, Texas, has failed, with liabilities of over *300,0:;0. According to the annual report of the comptroller of the currency, it appears that during the year ended November 1,1884, 191 banks have been organized, with an aggregate capital of ?10,042,2:50, and that circu. lating notes have been issued to these new associations amounting to $3,866,230. Eleven national banks failed during the year, although more than one hundred bankers and banks other than national failed during the same ]>eriod. A Vienna dispatch records the death of Fanny Elssler, once the world's greatest dancer. In 1840 she made a tour of America. Active measures are still being taken in China for the war with France. An alTray between Americans and Mexicans in a mining camp in Sonora, Mexico, resulted in the death of six mea Twenty thousand men will be put at work this winter on the Canadian Pacific railway. ' A NEW CREMATORY. A Fine Building tit Lancaster, Penn., for the Burning: of the Dead. A now crematory was opened a few after| noons ago at Lancaster, Penn. The first body incinccrated was that of a deceased lady I from Jersey City. The dedication was | interesting. First Prayer was offered ; by Rev. George Gaul, of St Paul's I Methodist church. The building was ! delivered to the society by Dr. M. L. Davis, j chairman of the building committee, who discussed the subject of cremation from a sanitary standpoint. An address followed by Rev. J. Max Hark, pastor of the Moravian church, and one of the vice-presidents of i the society, who treated the subject from the ] theological standpoint. The building is a small Gothic structure I forty-eight by thirty feet in dimensions, sit| uated in the mid>t of a plot of ground over an acre in extent, which will be. laid out in j walks and otherwise beautified. The crema| tnrium is divided into four apartments, the | largest of which is the auditorium, into which j the retorls open. The furnaces and retorts j are erected in tho middle of the buildj intr. On either side is a small reception room | ?one to be u>nl for the preparation of the I bodies for incineration and tho other as a ! toilet room for the accommodation of guests. I Tho remaining apartment, the furnace | room, is in t he rear part of the Building. It I has a capacity for two retorts, but at present there is only one in position, although the ! other lias been ordered and is now in process I of manufacture. The retort now in position I is said to Iw the large st in the world It is I nine feet long, thirty-six inches broad, and I twenty-four niches high at the center. It is I constructed of lire brick three and a half inches thick. The retort at the Lemoyne crematory is constructed of flro clay, and is seven l'eet long, seventeen inches high and twenty-six inches broad. It rests above the furnace on shield tiles two and a half inches ] in thickness. | The system of heating differs materially in i its ojjeration from any other plan. The furnace is without the usual smokestack, sufliI ciont draft lieing obtained by an arrange| nient of flues, of which there are six on eitner j side of the furnace. Two pipes which run from tiie outside of the rear flue, furnish the necessary oxygen to ignite the gas. Tho j flamospass three times around tho retort beI fore finally escaping, securing an even temi perature in every part, and insuring complete ! and simultaneous incineration. In preparing j the fire a medium of anthracite coal and coke j in equal quantities has been found to give tho ; greatest satisfaction, intense heat and considj erable quantities of gas lieing necessary requisites. Experiments with hard coal showed that it was incapable of generating the necj essary heat. It is calculated that about one ton of thi* combination tuei wui uo requireu for an hicin-ration. NEWSY GLEANINGS. Silk is now grown in twenty of our States. Oxr.y 2,SS0 miles of railroad have been built this year, which is less than in any year since 1879. The largest cattle range is in "Wyoming, j comprising 1,OUO,000 acres, and it will herd | 75,000 cattle. % | The most distressing poverty prevails in I Naples and other Italian cities. Outright j 6tarvati.?i is feared. Missui'iu rai-.es this year very nearly 210,000,000 bushels ot' corn, the largest crop ever produced in the State. It is estimated that tho averago daily consumption of eggs throughout the united I States amounts to 4.>,ouu,uuu. The English city of Birmingham now hap the largest railroad station in tho world It is | just finished at a cost of $2,000,000. The pauper population of England exceeds I hy some 100,000 souls tho entire population of the great colon)' ol' Xew South Wales. Ix the Montana cattle town^a newspaper, a shave and a glass of whisk"- all cost the same pric.i, namely, twenty-five cents. Judkon ~\Y. Lyons, colored, has been admitted to tho bar at Augusta,Ua. He is the third colored man thus admitted in that city sinco tho war. Forty years ago there was only ons (higucrreotyiK! gallery in New York city. Now within three miles of Union Square there are not less than .r>l0 photograph gal1 leriea. j MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC. j Fosteb got $15,000 for writing " Old Folks at Home." It is said that Minnie Palmer made nearly ! $200,000 in England last year. Mlle. Nevada, the young American ! prima donna, bas arrived in New York from | abroad. Miss Clara Morris will sail for London | Immediately after the close of her American I season. Mr. Irving's "Louis XI," is regarded by I the more enlightened section of the public as ! his best performance. William (Billy) Seymour, the original , Admiral of "Pinafore" in this country, is one j of the teachers at the New York school of acting. ? The tune of, "John Brown's Body" is of Methodist camp-meeting origin. It wa? adapted to its present use by an organist in Harvard churcu in 18<J1. Signor Salvi.ni has just astonished all Italv bv reviving a dusty old French melo drama," "The Coast Guard," and making it a stunning sensation and success in Florence. Liszt says he is overburdened with appeals for his autograph and requests to examine and give his opinion of musical compositions. Hereafter he will answer no such communications. Manager John Hollingshead. of the Gaiety Theatre, London, has signed a contract with John T. Raymond for the production of "Fresh" and "For Congress," in London, in June. A Chinese theatrical company at Singapore has lately produced several pieces in which combats between the French and Chinese take place upon the stage, invariably ending In the complete discomfiture of the 'foreign devils." Ristori made her first appearance on the stage at the ago of two months, when she was i introduced in a basket in a play called "New I Year's Gifts." In her fourth year she began ! to play children's parts, and at twelve she was an accomplished soubrette. 6ims, the successful dramatist, who cleared f150,000 last year, was born in London in 1847, and was placed in his father's office when nineteen. His first dramatic attempt was "Crutch and Toothpick," which realized $760. Then camo the " Lights o' London," and he found himself famous and rich. MRa Victoria Hulskamp, the young lady of Yonkers, N. Y.?who created such excitement recently by running away with and marrying her father's coachman, sang the other night in concert at Steinway Hall, New York. The house was crowded by people 1 who came to see her out of curiosity. The I Hn nnfc snAnlr hichtv nf hnr Hircnntr While Victorien Sardou's brilliantly sucj cessful play, " Les Pates do Mouche," was beI ing performed for the first time in Paris, ite I author spent the evening pacing the sidewalk i in front of the theatre in a fever of anxj lety. " If it takes," he said, "all right H I Qot, to-morrow I start for America to found i French newspaper there." He remained tn Paris. * NEW YORE^S VOTE, Official Declaration of the State Board of Caniaweri.. 'jfhe New York State board of canvassers completed its labors at Albany and adjourned. The proceedings throughout were harmonious and without a ripple of excitement. No questions arose that were not easily, properly, and satisfactorily settled. The teclii nical errors in several of the counties were | rectified by general coni?nt. Taking the vote ; on the head of the electoral ticket, the official ' plurality is as follows: Ottendorfer, Democrat 563,013 Blakeman, Republican 502,001 Plurality for Cleveland 1,047 I Uttendorrer, wno neaaea we uemocranc electoral ticket, ran behind the highest elector on that ticket, General Zenas C. Priest, 106 votes. Blakemcn, who headed the Republican electoral ticket, ran four votes behind Carson, who was the highest on the Republican ticket Hamilton Harris received tho smallest number of votes of any elector on the Republican ticket^ running thirty beI hind Blakeman. The difference between the lowest Cleveland elector and the highest Blaine I elector is as follows: ; Dttendorfer (lowest Cleveland) 503,048 ; Carson (highest Blaine) . ..562,005 Plurality for Cleveland. 1,034 Taking the vote cast for the highest elector on each ticket, the figures are as follows: Priest (Cleveland) 563,154 Carson (Blaine) 562,005 Plurality for Cleveland 1,149 The difference betweefl the lowest electors on the respective tickets is thus shown: Ottendorfer (Cleveland) 563,048 Harris (Blaine) 561,971 Plurality for Cleveland 1,077 The grand total of ballots cast in the State i for Cleveland and Blaine electors, supposing | each pereou to have voted for thirty-six, was j 40,515,018, of which the Democratic electors I received 20,273,068, and the Republican elec| tors 20,231,950, the difference being 41,118. ! Dividing this by thirty-six, the number of | electors, gives the average Democratic plur| ality in this State 1,142. The highest Prohibition elector, Mr. Miller, ' received 25,006, and the lowest, Mr. EllsI worth, 24,948. The highest Butler elector, I Mr. O'Donnell, received 17,004, and the lowI ?t. VI- lit >?t;l A ffo,. thn nr. oaf, iui uaiupirou, jv,m/i, tuvl Ul, j nouncement of the totals the members ol tho board signed the tables and the certifi; cates. A TERRIBLE PLAGUE, Bad Water CaiiNC? Hundreds of Death* in Virj?in'a and K-cntiicky. The Louisville Courier-Journal recently sont a staflf corresdondent to investigate the j reported ravages of a dread disease in Eastern Kentucky and Western Virginia. The correspondent sends tho following from Williamsburg, Ky. W. C. Lester, a prominent attorney of this place, has just arrived from Mount Pleasant, the county seat of Harlan where he has been for two weeks past at the court as acting prosecuting attorney. Mr. Lester has information of the prevailing plague, principally from Harlan, Letcher, Perry, Leslie ami Bell counties. He says that in Harlan it apjfears worst. It is most fatal and prevails to tho greatest extent about the head| waters of the Fork and Clover creek, in the mountains, about, twenty-five miles from Mount Pleasant This largo territory is being terribly afflicted, tho people dying very rapidly. In one neighborhood twelve persons died in a single day in tho latter part of last week, and there weru scarcely well people enough to make them coffins and bury them. On Brown's Creek, which rises in Harlan and empties into the Cumberland river in Boll couuty, the disease is raging with frightful fatality, and there is no means of keeping a record of the dead. All along the banks of I the stream people are sick, and physicians aim | medicines, "outside of herbs and roots with ; whose curative proj>erties the natives are acquainted.are unknown anil unattainable. The epidemic is rapidly spreading in Harlan county. In the district covering the southern portion of Letcher and Perry, the whole of Leslie, and the northeast 1 portion of Hell County the plague has ob I tained a foothold, but the reports as to its j J virulence are very conflicting. Mr. Lester [ ; thinks that the deaths run up into the hun | dreds, while the number of tlioso attacked cannot be estimated. The disease does not prevail at Mount Pleasant. i Mr. Lester further says that no one seem" 1 I to know the exact nature of the pestilence. Most of the peoplo called it "flux," and it is | probably a very aggravated form of t tat disease. It begins with griping pains in j the stomach, followed by a debilitating diarrhoea and swelling of the throat, and if not fatal in three or four days the patient, as a rule, recovers. All reports agree as t<> I the cause of the epidemic, it l>eing attributed to the uso of impure water bv the natives. ' ?? .1,.,. fl,., Tlio season iins ?iwu uiin.iua,.j ...... .... streams, as a rule, consisting only <>f narrow threads of murky, foul smell ing ami foul tasting water. The corn crop in all the counties named above is good, and starvations and want only exist because the people can spare no time from the sick to gather it. No mills are running on the smaller streams. My informant had no news, except in a general way, of the plague in Virginia and West Virginia. ORIENTAL FEEOCITT. More than 200 PrWoncri .Hassacred in Iliirmah, India. A horribie massacre has occurred in Mandalay. The guards placed in charge of the principal prisons, which are constructed of bamboo, set fire to one of the sides of th. edifice, and having assured themselves that the flames were already beginning to invade tho parts which served as shelter to the wretched pris oners, opened the gates, in front of which there had been drawn up a good number of soldiers armed with guns and swords. Then they threw themselves like wild beasts upon those who, to escapo being burned alive, rushed out of the gates. The massacre lasted all the night, m the presence of the highest functionaries of tho town, whe with cries and gesticulations excited the assassins against their passivo victims. The number of killed exceeded two1 hundred, and among them were some relations of Prince Yung Tan, who is at present living in Calcutta. The day after the massacre the bodies, mntilated in a manner too horrible to describe, were lying heaped about on carts and in tho streets of the town. For some months tho prisons here and elsewhere had been crowded with brig ands and political prisoners. A revolt wai feared, and the governor could find 110 bctti-j expedient to avoid it than to give proof of his determined ferocity by ordering the massacre of ad prisoners without distinction of sex, age, or the cause of imprisonment. PROMINENT PEOPLE. H ___?? jSM ^THEcoat of King Joseph of Portugal cost J The archbishop of Faris is a dally visitor Toe Hon. George Bancroft, over eighty Jg fears old, now takes long daily walks instead of horseback rides. The French transport Isero will sail for New York about May 15, with Hartholdi's JH itatue of Liberty '^lightening the World. H| Mr. Wait, of Connecticut, will be the * ? o. lest member of the next national House of Representatives. He lacks four years of jH The new president of the American Bible H society is tho secrctarv of state, Sir. Frellng- H huysen. Theodore Frelinghuysou held the ','a? office for many years. -fn Mr. Mapleson, manager of the song birds -.- -affB'tvl of the stage, has been elected a member of tha . council of the American exhibition, wliich is J proposed to be held in London in l^SC. 1 Secretary Lincoln states tliat be is not ' fl a candidate for the Senate from Illinois, and V that alter Mar>-h 4 ho expects to return to -1 Chicago and resume bis aw practice. -M The greatest tea drinker in Eugiand is Mr. ~ 1 Gladstone, the greatest in France M. Clemen- 1 ceau, and in America, tho dramatist, Mr. _1 Boucicault. The latter carries while travel- j a iuujv uj. iato. ao uiuci o \x%j vl wguag? . Ismail, tho ex-khedive of Egypt, is not a J pauper. Between 1*74 and iST'j, when ho ab- ,' dicated, more than $10),00),Oao was paid in J to his account at various European banks, J principally in Holland and Belgium. *'} The Buffalo papers fay the friends of Miss ' ' : Folsom and of Miss Love know nothing of thf ' < '% reported engagement of either to Governor Cleveland. Miss Love never met the gover- I nor but once, and that was at adinner party. ' Wisconsin will claim the honor of sending . J the youngest man to tlio Forty-ninth Con- J gress in the person of Ilolxr: M. LuFollette. | He is only twenty-eight years old, hut ha* _, already made a refutation" as u speaker and J Sir Moses Montefiore mi^ht have seen M a woman burned in front of I^ewgage if-he . had happened to be on the spot at the moment. V That within possiDility of living memory a '- :Tm woman should have been burned,-even attei J hanging, by English law, seem:) astonisliing. 1 Mrs. Tyler and Mrs. Polk aro the only M women now living who were wives of ante bet JB ]um presidents, audit is rather odd that MrsTyler is tho younger of the two by twenty- B five or thirty years, whereas her husband wa* , ; president in Inland 1S44, while Mr. Poll id not como into office until later. m DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, 1 The Annual Report of Attorney- J General Brcimier. :lm The annual report of Attorney-General 'M Brewster has been made public. With referonce to the chief supervisors of election ho m says that they are not under tho control of V any department of the government At M present they do not show sufficient regard for W the public interests, and be suggests that all J accounts of chief supervisors should be taxed 4 in open court, under the inspection andexom- - s&M ination of tho district-attorney. 1 The attention of Congress is directed to -flBKI the want of proper legislation for criminal * 3M cases, and the .evils, omissions and defects, in f&'i9 the existing forms of law are dwelt upon at ' length, while tho draft of a bill is submitted, aM q designed to form the proper remedies. The 1 evils that surround the jury system in the District of Columbia aro enu- J merated and condemned. Mr. Brewster I says that it is a matter of common belief and report that " jury fixing P flourishes to an 1 alarming extent in the district; that men , support families and become rich in this no-' 1 farious business. He advises increasing the 1 number of jurors to forty-eight and shorten- ! ing their time of service to one month. 1 He recommends that tho jurisdiction of the United States circuit and district courts for j the judicial district of Maryland be extended 1 so that crimes committed in the District of ' Columbia can be tried in those courts, and - 1 this recommendation is made with especial reference to the national treasury as the great m center of allurement and temptation. In con- v elusion he calls attention to the report ol ' SH George L. Douglass, assistant district attorney in the star route civil suits. He renewi his recommendation that the system of pay- < -. ing United States marshals be changed from . '.^9 fees to salaries, and says that the legislatun of Utah refuses to appropriate funds for thi ex^tion of the territorial laws under con- j gresf&onal legislation. DEVOURED BY WOLVES, i Father and Daughter Killed?The Iflothcr Dies of Fright. A tragic incident is reported from Eastern # ^ -??$ vjja Hungary. A clergyman, with his wife and child, were driving in a sledge from Krasnisora to the neighboring village of , Kls-Lonka. A pack of ravenous wolves pursued them. The mother was terror stricken and let the child fall from her arms. At that the father leaped from the sledge to save the child. Father and child were at once fiercely attacked by the wolves. Tho father fought desperately and killed two of the wolves, but he was at last overcome and both hd and his child were devoured. Meanwhile the horses had rushed onward with the sledge, still bearing the agonized mother. In her agony of terror she gave premature birth to a babe which - -ill was dead when it was born. This terrible shock with all tho rest she had suffered, proved J too much for the poor woman, and when tho ^jHj jledge reached Kis-Lonka she, too, was dead So the whole familv neriihed inside of an fl SHOCKING SCENE One Acrobat, Holding- Another on a ' V -I Trapeze in Her TcctU, Drop* Hi ill. Advices from Valencia, Spain, Recount a shocking accident at the Princess' theatre in that city. Miss Leona Dare, the American "S acrobat, was suspended from the roof of the theatre by her feet, and held in her teeth the ropes of a trapeze bar on which a male acrobat, known as M. George, was performing In the act, Miss Dare was seized with a nervous fit and dropped the trapoze. M. George and the ap* A paratus dropped whirling to the floor. TheauJ i ? ? ?Fifarv AWO niohikl UieilW Wtuuui lui-ai/nvacu. u<cij for the doors, and a panic ensued In which many people were crushed and otherwise injured. Miss Dare clung to the roof, screaming hysterically. She was rescued with difficulty after the excitement had somewhat subsided, and was confined to her bed from ex- ' , .~2) haustion following the shock. M. Georga * ' y was fatally injured. Shortsightedness. A writer in the London Timet claims isi&w. the cause of myopia to be the applicatiou ;? of the eyes to near objects; in other words, the poring over books and handi- v '$? crafts. When the eyes arc directed to a near object, they arc turned in or rendered convergent, so that the axis of vision meet upon it, and this position is 'M maintained by a muscular ellort which, mShH if continued, alters the shape of the eye >*!. in the direction of elongation. Mani- ^ festly, the alteration will be most easily . ;j5j effected during youth, when the tissues of the body, including those of the eye, are comparatively lax and distensible, ^ and it will also be most easily effected among those young people whose tissues are exceptionally weak, by reason of inadequate fo d or of unhealthy descent or surroundings. Badly lighted schools are the great manufactories of myopia, the bad light compelling approximation of the books or other materials of study. Prairie Fires. A prairie tire is not the most picturesque or dangorous thing in the world, I though I have often read of this red | regiment in line charging across the plains, driving before it herds of buffa| iocs, wolves and grizzlies, and swallow ing men at a mouthful. When in the Northwest I asked many ohl settlers if they had ever known any man in danger ? from a prairie (ire. The answer was always "No." The reason is that the tire does not advance in a uniform line; the i head fire, which is of small width, is strong and rapid; but the side tires are easily stepped over. ''The only tire," said an old tire king, "that I ever saw that may have been dangerous for a few minutes was caused in a singular way. The grass was thick, and the prairie had been burning some time, and side tire3 stretched as far as the eye could reach. Suddenly the wind "hifted, ten miles or more of side lire turned into a head tire, aud for a brief period raced over a thick grass like a cavalry regiment.?John Sicii,t?n\i Paper. The Great G.'s. A few years ;igo it used to be said in France that the world was governed by the "G.'s." Mr. Grevy was president of France, aud M. (lambctta was its chief statesman. Germany was ruled by the Emperor William, whose name is Gnillaume to a Frenchman. Great Britain was governed by Gladstone, GortschakofT was i * n _ me cnanreiior ui ixksmu, \>;unuut the president of the United States. Since then Gaml>ctta, Garfield and (ioi'lsehakotr have died, but M. de Giers has taken the place of the latter: so that with (Gladstone, Grevy. Giers and Gnilliiume this favored letter 6. still lias^ts share of prominence among I he rulers of the world.